Tuesday!

Tuesday started off with Grayson and Laura heading out on a run again.. that is dedication
And at Breakfast Grayson lead our daily devotional.. and it was very appropriate .. it was missionaries... and what it means to be a missionary. What Grayson went over was found in Romans 1 18-20 and she talked about that the bible does not say that to be a missionary that yyou need to go and do 'works'.. (granted, to do that is great if you can) but to be a missionary is to go and share your heart and you faith with other and to truly connect with them. And we are definitely doing that! When we all leave here, the people of Shalom church, Merida, The Yucatan, and Mexico in our heart and in our daily prayers.

After breakfast we headed out to tour the City.. Merida is muy beautiful! The pictures do not do it justice.But I will try and give you all a small flavor.

My favorite story is how this area of Mexico got its name. The story goes.. When the Spanish arrived they saw some Mayan fisherman and the Spanish called out.."what is the name of this place?"The Mayans looked at each other and had no idea what the Spanish were saying and yelled back"What are you saying?" in Mayan. and in Mayan "what are you saying sound like "Yu Ca tan" so the Spanish though the Mayans where answering the question with the name of the place instead of saying "Que?" (what?!)

After the tour we went to Shalom and meet a local historian who told us the religious history of this area from colonial times to now.. which was very interesting.. (as I love history) Evangelistic churches arrived in the Yucatan in the 1880s and have grown since then.. Today they make up at 9 percent of the population.. about another 15 percent are non Christians and the rest Catholic.. It was fascinating to me as I have done some research on religious history my self.

After that we had lunch at Shalom church and connected with some of the Shalom staff members.. it is very fun! It is amazing to me how humor translates across languages.. people were laughing and all sharing stories. And the best part was Alan got to play some basketball.. he may not realize but Diego is on of Shaloms basketball stars!

For dinner we all split up and went to the different leaders houses. Greyson and I went to Gabby's. Alan and Leslie went to Chocho's and Laura and Jennifer went to Wilbar's. We all had great time.. I think we at times felt maby a little intimidated as we are all new friends.. But we all had good times where we all shared jokes, good food and prayers and when we go home we will all have the prayers for Merida, Shalom and our new friends in our hearts.

If you all want to share with the prayers.. please pray for secruity for Merida...it is a pretty safe city but it is expereniencing growth and an increase in crime. And to pray for Shalom adding a 3rd service in September.